JP2013036826A - Connection defect detector for optical fiber connector node and connection defect detection method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform measurement without complicating a measuring system for detection of a connection defect caused by erroneous connector connection or half fitting that may become a factor of signal deterioration in an optical fiber transmission line.SOLUTION: A connection defect detector comprises: a pulse light source 11 which outputs pulse light; a polarization controller 12 which outputs the pulse light outputted from the pulse light source 11 after changing a polarization state of the pulse light; a photocoupler 13 which inputs the pulse light outputted from the polarization controller 12 to one terminal of an optical fiber connector 21 to be measured and splits a reflection beam outputted from one terminal of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured; an optical power meter 14 which detects power of the reflection beam split by the photocoupler 13; and a control processing section 15 which controls the pulse light source 11 and the polarization controller 12, measures a PDL of a node of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured from the power of the reflection beam measured by the optical power meter 14 and, if the PDL is greater than a predetermined PDL reference value, determines a connection defect in the node of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured.

Description

  The present invention measures polarization dependent loss (PDL) at an optical fiber connector connection point using the optical power of reflected light (backscattered light) from an optical fiber connected to the optical fiber connector. Thus, the present invention relates to a connection failure detector and a connection failure detection method for detecting the presence or absence of a connection failure at an optical fiber connector connection point.

  An OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) is widely used to measure the breaking point and connector connection point of an optical fiber. In OTDR, pulsed light is incident on an optical fiber, and backscattered light generated by Rayleigh scattering generated in the optical fiber and Fresnel reflected light generated at an optical fiber connector connection point are measured in the time domain. From the connection loss and return loss of the optical fiber measured in this time domain, the distance to the break point of the optical fiber and the connection point of the optical fiber connector can be specified (Non-Patent Document 1).

  On the other hand, the PDL of the system to be measured is known to measure from the optical power after transmission through the system to be measured using the polarization scrambling method (polarization scanning method) or the Mueller method (Non-Patent Document 2). .

  Polarization scrambling (polarization scanning) is a method in which the polarization state (SOP: State of Polarization) of input light is randomly scrambled by the polarization controller and input to the system under measurement to create all SOPs. The PDL is directly measured by the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the output light intensity. The Mueller method is a method of mathematically measuring PDL by the Mueller-Stokes method using power measurement values in four types of input polarizations (horizontal, vertical, +45 degrees, clockwise circle) set by the polarization controller. It is. The Mueller method can obtain a sufficient resolution with a control system and a measurement system having a simple configuration as compared with the polarization scrambling method (polarization scanning method).

Yasushi Sato, Nobuaki Ema, Yosuke Harima, Naoto Sato, “New OTDR AQ7260 Series for Optical Fiber Installation and Maintenance”, http://www.yokogawa.co.jp/rd/pdf/tr/rd-tr-r04902- 003.pdf Agilent Application Note, “Polarization Dependent Loss Measurement of Passive Optical Components”, http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5988-1232EN.pdf. R. M. Craig, S. L. Gilbert, and P. D. Hale, “High-Resolution, Nonmechanical Approach to Polarization-Dependent Transmission Measurements,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol.16, no.7, pp.1285-1294. July, 1998.

  By measuring the reflected light of the optical fiber transmission line by OTDR, it is possible to detect a connection error due to connector misconnection or half-fitting that may cause signal deterioration of the optical fiber transmission line. However, in OTDR, it is difficult to detect a connection failure at an optical fiber connector connection point in the immediate vicinity of OTDR due to the limitation of sampling resolution of an AD (Analog to Digital) converter in the light receiving unit. In order to solve this, it is necessary to separately connect a long-distance optical fiber or to mount an ultrahigh-speed AD converter in front of the connector connecting part immediately before the OTDR. However, problems such as an increase in the complexity of the measurement system, an insufficient number of bits due to the mounting of an ultrahigh-speed AD converter, deterioration in linearity performance, and an increase in power consumption occur (Non-Patent Document 1). Further, as described in Non-Patent Document 1, measurement is performed by shifting the timing of emission of pulsed light while keeping the sampling period of the AD converter constant, and by synthesizing the signal, the sampling rate is several tens of times the reference clock. However, this also increases the complexity of the measurement system due to the addition of a timing control system.

  The present invention measures polarization dependent loss (PDL) at an optical fiber connector connection point using the optical power of reflected light (backscattered light) from an optical fiber connected to the optical fiber connector. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a connection failure detector and a connection failure detection method for an optical fiber connector connection point that can detect a connection failure at the nearest optical fiber connector connection point.

  In the first invention, reflection by backscattering at a predetermined position of the optical fiber transmission line is applied to the pulsed light input from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured and output to the optical fiber transmission line connected to the other end. A pulse light source that outputs pulsed light in a connection failure detector that detects light from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured, detects its power, and detects whether there is a connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured; A polarization controller that changes the polarization state of the pulsed light output from the light source and outputs the pulsed light output from the polarization controller to one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured, and one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured Optical coupler for branching the reflected light output from the optical power meter, an optical power meter for detecting the power of the reflected light branched by the optical coupler, and a pulse light source The polarization controller is controlled to measure the PDL (Polarization Dependent Loss) at the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured from the reflected light power measured by the optical power meter, and the PDL is larger than a predetermined PDL reference value. And a control processing unit that determines that the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is poorly connected.

  In the connection failure detector at the connection point of the optical fiber connector according to the first aspect of the invention, the control processing unit includes four types corresponding to four types of polarization (horizontal, vertical, +45 degrees, clockwise circle) with respect to the polarization controller. Control is performed so as to sequentially output pulsed light, and the PDL of the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is calculated from the power of reflected light with respect to each pulsed light using the Mueller method.

  In the connection failure detector at the connection point of the optical fiber connector according to the first invention, the PDL reference value is set based on the PDL measured when the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is normally connected.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, reflection by backscattering at a predetermined position of the optical fiber transmission line is applied to pulsed light that is input from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured and output to the optical fiber transmission line connected to the other end. In a connection failure detection method in which light is extracted from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured, its power is detected, and the presence or absence of a connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is detected. The polarization controller changes the polarization state of the pulsed light output from the pulsed light source, and the pulsed light output from the polarization controller is input to one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured via the optical coupler. The reflected light output from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured is branched via the optical coupler, and the reflected light branched by the optical coupler is The control processing unit that detects the power input to the wattmeter and controls the pulsed light source and the polarization controller uses the PDL (Polarization) of the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured from the power of the reflected light measured by the optical power meter. Dependent Loss) is measured, and when the PDL is larger than a predetermined PDL reference value, the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is determined to be defective.

  In the connection failure detection method of the optical fiber connector connection point according to the second aspect of the invention, the control processing unit has four types corresponding to four types of polarization (horizontal, vertical, +45 degrees, clockwise circle) with respect to the polarization controller. Control is performed so as to sequentially output pulsed light, and the PDL of the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is calculated from the power of reflected light with respect to each pulsed light using the Mueller method.

  In the connection failure detection method of the optical fiber connector connection point according to the second aspect of the invention, the PDL reference value is set based on the PDL measured when the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is normally connected.

  The present invention provides an optical power of reflected light (backscattered light) of each polarization from an optical fiber transmission line in a configuration in which an optical pulse of a predetermined polarization passes through the optical fiber connector and is input to the optical fiber transmission line. Is used to measure the PDL at the connection point of the optical fiber connector and compare it with a predetermined PDL reference value to detect whether there is a connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the connection failure detector of this invention. It is a figure which shows the PDL measurement result by the connection failure detector of this invention.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of the connection failure detector of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, the connection failure detector 10 includes a pulse light source 11, a polarization controller 12, an optical coupler 13, an optical power meter 14, and a control processing unit 15. An optical fiber transmission line 22 is connected to the connection failure detector 10 via a measured optical fiber connector 21.

  The pulsed light output from the pulse light source 11 changes its polarization state via the polarization controller 12, passes through the optical coupler 13 and the measured optical fiber connector 21, and is input to the optical fiber transmission line 22. The reflected light (backscattered light) from the optical fiber transmission line 22 after passing through the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured is branched by the optical coupler 13 via the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured and input to the optical power meter 14. The power of the reflected light is measured. The measured reflected light power is input to the control processing unit 15.

  The control processing unit 15 is configured to measure the PDL at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured from the power of the reflected light using the Mueller method. The wave controller 12 is controlled to sequentially output four pulse lights corresponding to four types of polarized waves (horizontal, vertical, +45 degrees, clockwise circle).

  The reflected light (backscattered light) from the optical fiber transmission line 22 uses reflected light corresponding to the time difference Δt between the time when each of the four pulse lights corresponding to the four types of polarization is incident and the time of measurement. This time difference Δt corresponds to the generation position of the reflected light (backscattered light) to be observed in the optical fiber transmission line 22, but in the present invention, the PDL at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured is measured from the power of the reflected light. Therefore, the difference in the time difference Δt does not greatly affect the determination of the presence or absence of a connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21.

In the Mueller method, using a computer, transmitted optical power (Pa, Pb, Pc, Pd) and received optical power (P ₁ , P ₂ , P ₃ , P ₄ ) for four types of polarization, a total of 8 values. First, muller matrix elements m ₁₁ , m ₁₂ , m ₁₃ , and m ₁₄ that express the polarization characteristics of the device under test are calculated.
m ₁₁ = ((P ₁ / Pa) + (P ₂ / Pb)) / 2
m ₁₂ = ((P ₁ / Pa) − (P ₂ / Pb)) / 2
m ₁₃ = P ₃ / Pc−m ₁₁
m ₁₄ = P ₄ / Pd−m ₁₁

Next, the maximum transmission Tmax and the minimum transmission Tmin are calculated.
Tmax = m ₁₁ + (m ₁₂ ² + m ₁₃ ² + m ₁₄ ² ) ^1/2
Tmin = m ₁₁ − (m ₁₂ ² + m ₁₃ ² + m ₁₄ ² ) ^1/2

Next, PDL (dB) is calculated from the difference (Non-Patent Document 2).
PDL = 10 log (Tmax / Tmin)

  According to Non-Patent Document 3, high PDL occurs due to erroneous connection of the optical fiber connector or a gap in the connection portion. Therefore, if PDL measurement is performed at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured according to the present invention, the latest measured light is measured. It is possible to detect whether there is a connection failure in the fiber connector 21.

  In the PDL measurement, by measuring the transmission light power for each polarization in advance, a transmission light power measurement system is not required as shown in FIG. However, the transmission optical power may be measured each time. In this case, the pulsed light transmitted from between the polarization controller 12 and the measured optical fiber connector 21 is branched and input to the optical power meter 14. . At this time, the corresponding received light power is measured after a time difference Δt after measuring the transmitted light power.

FIG. 2 shows a PDL measurement result by the connection failure detector of the present invention.
In FIG. 2, the PDL measurement value indicated by the horizontal axis is obtained by calculating the PDL at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured nearest to the connection failure detector 10 from the power of the reflected light from the optical fiber transmission line 22 by the Mueller method. The calculated result is shown. The measured value of the reflection amount indicated by the vertical axis indicates the amount of reflection measured using a conventional OTDR with a 1 km optical fiber inserted in front of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured. That is, the PDL and the reflection amount measured separately are plotted in correspondence with the horizontal axis and the vertical axis. Note that even if a 1 km optical fiber is inserted before the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured and PDL is measured with the same configuration as the OTDR, there is no influence on the determination of the connection failure of the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21. .

  For the measurement, PDL measurement and reflection amount measurement by OTDR were performed for the four core wires # 1 to # 4 under two conditions of normal connection and poor connection using a four-core MT connector. Here, the connection conditions of the MT connector were defined as normal connection when a matching agent having the same refractive index as the core of the optical fiber was applied, and poor connection when no matching agent was applied.

  From the measurement results of FIG. 2, it can be confirmed that the reflection amount of PDL and OTDR is small when the MT connector is normally connected, but the reflection amount of OTDR increases and the PDL increases when connection is poor. Therefore, when the PDL reference value (for example, 0.1 dB) of the MT connector during normal connection is set in advance as shown in FIG. 2 and PDL exceeding the reference value is measured, the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured is poorly connected. Can be determined.

  That is, the control processing unit 15 sets a time difference Δt at the time of measurement with respect to each incident time of four pulse lights corresponding to four kinds of polarized waves, and measures from the power of each reflected light measured by the optical power meter 14. By calculating the PDL at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21 and comparing the PDL with the PDL reference value, it is possible to easily determine whether there is a connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the presence or absence of a connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector 21 to be measured can also be determined from the reflection amount measured using the OTDR. It is measured by inserting a 1 km optical fiber in front of the optical fiber connector 21 and takes extra time.

  Therefore, the configuration of the present invention for measuring the PDL at the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured from the power of the reflected light can more easily eliminate the connection failure of the nearest optical fiber connector than the conventional method of measuring the reflection amount by OTDR. Can be detected.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Connection failure detector 11 Pulse light source 12 Polarization controller 13 Optical coupler 14 Optical power meter 15 Control processing part 21 Optical fiber connector 22 to be measured 22 Optical fiber transmission line

Claims (6)

For the pulsed light input from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured and output to the optical fiber transmission line connected to the other end, the reflected light due to backscattering at a predetermined position of the optical fiber transmission line is measured. In the connection failure detector that detects the presence or absence of connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured by detecting the power taken out from one end of the connector,
A pulse light source that outputs the pulsed light;
A polarization controller that changes and outputs the polarization state of the pulsed light output from the pulsed light source;
An optical coupler that inputs the pulsed light output from the polarization controller to one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured and branches the reflected light output from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured;
An optical power meter for detecting the power of the reflected light branched by the optical coupler;
The PDL (Polarization Dependent Loss) at the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is measured from the power of the reflected light measured by the optical power meter by controlling the pulse light source and the polarization controller. A connection failure detector for an optical fiber connector connection point, comprising: a control processing unit that determines that the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is a connection failure when it is larger than a predetermined PDL reference value. In the connection failure detector of the optical fiber connector connection point according to claim 1,
The control processing unit controls the polarization controller to sequentially output four pulse lights corresponding to four types of polarization (horizontal, vertical, +45 degrees, clockwise circle), and for each pulse light A connection failure detector for an optical fiber connector connection point, wherein the PDL of the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is calculated from the power of the reflected light using the Mueller method. In the connection failure detector of the optical fiber connector connection point according to claim 1,
The connection failure detector for an optical fiber connector connection point, wherein the PDL reference value is set based on a PDL measured when the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is normally connected. For the pulsed light input from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured and output to the optical fiber transmission line connected to the other end, the reflected light due to backscattering at a predetermined position of the optical fiber transmission line is measured. In the connection failure detection method for detecting the presence of connection failure at the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured, detecting the power taken out from one end of the connector,
Output the pulsed light from the pulsed light source to the polarization controller,
Change and output the polarization state of the pulsed light output from the pulsed light source in the polarization controller,
The pulsed light output from the polarization controller is input to one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured through an optical coupler, and the reflected light output from one end of the optical fiber connector to be measured is passed through the optical coupler. Branch off
The reflected light branched by the optical coupler is input to an optical power meter to detect its power,
The control processing unit that controls the pulse light source and the polarization controller measures PDL (Polarization Dependent Loss) of the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured from the power of the reflected light measured by the optical power meter. A connection failure detection method for an optical fiber connector connection point, wherein the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is determined to be a connection failure when the PDL is larger than a predetermined PDL reference value. In the connection failure detection method of the optical fiber connector connection point according to claim 4,
The control processing unit controls the polarization controller to sequentially output four pulse lights corresponding to four types of polarization (horizontal, vertical, +45 degrees, clockwise circle), and for each pulse light A connection failure detection method of an optical fiber connector connection point, wherein the PDL of the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is calculated from the power of the reflected light using a Mueller method. In the connection failure detection method of the optical fiber connector connection point according to claim 4,
The connection failure detection method for an optical fiber connector connection point, wherein the PDL reference value is set based on a PDL measured when the connection point of the optical fiber connector to be measured is normally connected.

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